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Comment by SeoxyS | Hacker News Reader

I will be really sad to see it go. Perian is one of the first five things I download when I'm on a clean install of OS X. Support has sadly been lagging when it comes to MKV, and for that I still keep VideoLan around; but otherwise I love having full system-wide QuickTime support for all common video formats (AVI).

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What are the other four things?

Adium. Quicksilver. Homebrew. Dropbox.

Also: Chrome, Xcode, Skitch, Divvy and the basic CLI tools.

It's funny. I used to use Psi, but then I switched to iChat. I used to use Quicksilver, then I switched to Launchbar, and now I just use Spotlight. I have Homebrew, because MacPorts can't install 3.2 of GNU Smalltalk and for no other reason. I haven't installed Dropbox ever, or Skitch (never heard of it, will check it out) or Divvy (I think I downloaded a demo of it once, thought it would be cool, and never went back to buy it).

I don't know what my problem is, but I guess my need for new features keeps diminishing. Maybe in forty years I'll finally be able to use Plan 9.

I went from LaunchBar to Quicksilver to Spotlight to LaunchBar. Can't live without that clipboard history! I don't use many of its other features anymore though.

Preview annotates things well enough that I never use Skitch, although Skitch is cool if you want to use the sharing features.

You might be missing out on Dropbox. I wouldn't want to go without it these days as I use more than one computer regularly and don't have to remember to commit 'WIP' on a branch before I head home, I just drop the mic and get the fuck out. YMMV.

Divvy is great. I use it w/ SizeUp every day and wouldn't want to go without them. I don't miss xmonad at all anymore.

Other than that I install 1Password, The Unarchiver, Growl, CrashPlan, Flux, TextMate, iTerm, and GitX and I am good to go.

I seem to shed tools as OS X improves as well, but I hope that nobody is using plan9 in 40 years! ;-)

Agree on TextMate. Haven't heard of most of the other stuff. I used Xmonad for about six months, then I basically copied the keybindings into an fvwm config, then I switched to KDE, brought over a handful of the keybindings and I seem to be alright.

I would probably use Dropbox if I didn't have a VM. A friend has been trying to get me to use one of their competitors for a while.

Plan 9 is great, just a bit too much ideology to actually get anything done. I hope it's still maintained in 40 years in case I do go that way. :)

I feel exactly the same way. Suddenly I feel like a curmudgeon.

"Maybe in forty years I'll finally be able to use Plan 9." - LOL!!

I prefer Alfred over Quicksilver, and Window Magnet instead of Divvy. Just in case someone is interested in alternatives.

The one more thing that I really, really recommend for anyone to try is Flux. I really wish the iPad had it.

And then there are lots of "default writes" that I do on every new computer… :(

It is available on Cydia for jailbroken iPads/iPhones, if you're into that sort of thing. You probably knew that, but just in case…

Whoops, I totally forgot to mention 1Password. Another top 5 essential. Without it, I can't login anywhere :).

Also: Growl.

Wait, I'll come in again ;)

You just made me realize I don't even have a 'top 5' anymore, a basic linux installation contains everything that I need to get through my working day. Email, browser, vi, c-compiler.

Digression:

> Without it, I can't login anywhere

Here is the problem with 1Password and other similar tools: if you are in a place where you don't have access to 1Password, you can't login at all (i.e. you are screwed). This is why I force myself to remember all my passwords even if they are complex and numerous.

As asmala said, you can sync to Dropbox, plus it has a web based version that works great directly from the Dropbox web interface. So you can access your passwords anywhere you can log into Dropbox.

I've had 1Password for a few months now, and didn't know this. Colour me impressed. Thanks for pointing it out.

That's true, but as long as either of those is true, I'm fine:

1) I have internet access to get to dropbox.com. 2) I have my iPhone handy.

1Password syncs to both of these over the air. So, bare a catastrophe, I should be fine.

You can sync to Dropbox: http://help.agile.ws/1Password3/configure_dropbox_on_mac.htm...

You're right, but if it's critical I'll just request a new password. A bit tedious, but I'm not often in that situation.

So, instead of syncing them to your phone, and having them encrypted on DropBox, or a USB stick or something, you force yourself to remember redundant staff that would only prove useful 1 in 100 times?

Well, two of them are probably VLC and The Unarchiver.

First thing I install is Little Snitch.

I find Radio Silence to be cleaner. http://radiosilenceapp.com/ Only 9 bucks.

Except, from what I can tell, there's no way to have it alert you when applications try to call out. So you have to know in advance which applications you want to block, and specify them manually.

Also, if the app you want to block calls out during installation, it's too late.

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